Wonderlust

Blue. Orange.

A few days had passed since then. The bruises had gotten less purple. I took things easy. Dylan eventually let me drive a little bit. We had moved from Northern California down a little lower. We stopped a lot to mess around. Just yesterday we spent hours on a kid's playground because Dylan was feeling nostalgic.

"I never went out to play on these things as a kid." He had said. "Come on, let's see who can jump the farthest off the swings."

I remember sitting on the swings set as the sun went down and watching him sit in a field of tiny yellow flowers, completely emerged. I remember leaning against the cold chains that held me up and sighing, because of how cute that was. So basically, what I'm saying is that I've spent the last few days possibly falling more in love with him. I say possibly because I'm still in denial.

Now it was nighttime. I was driving on a highway. Dylan was in the other seat, getting some well-deserved rest. He was either napping or just staring out the window. The lights flew past us. There were barely any cars around. It was strange but not unnatural. I yawned, feeling the tug of sleep pull down my eyelids.

Dylan sat up suddenly. "You want to find a place to pull over for the night? You look tired."

I nodded. "Yeah. I'm not falling over yet but it's probably around that time."

I exited the highway and drove through some streets. There was a parking garage a little way off. We passed through a neighborhood. Some people had started to put out their Halloween decorations. It was fun too look at. One house we passed by had lots of cars outside and there was big lights and loud music. Dylan perked up as we drove by.

"Hold on, stop here a moment."

I frowned, wondering what was going through his head for the millionth time since I'd met him. He rolled down the window and the sound of rave music and laughing young adults flooded through. He looked back at me and there was that look on his face. That glint in his eyes.

"No." I told him, right off the bat.

"Aw come on, Atticus. Have you ever been to a party like that before?"

I tilted my head and sighed. "Nope."

"Then let's do it." He rocked back and forth in his seat excitedly.

"We can't just go into some person's random house." I huffed. "We weren't invited."

"Atticus, Atticus, Atticus." He clicked his tongue. "This is a teenage rave. Half the people there weren't invited."

"But it'll be noisy and crowded." I continued. "And I have anxiety."

He put a hand on my shoulder. "Just try it okay? If you don't like we can scram. If we're kicked out we'll scram. I'll be by your side the whole time."

"Hm... maybe."

He had this look on his face. Like he wanted to show me something really amazing. I knew it was something I had never experienced before. It was a stupid idea, but I think that's what Dylan's thing was. Just going out and doing stupid things while we were still stupidly young and stupidly brave.

"I won't do anything you're not comfortable with." He promised, patting my hand lightly.

I glanced nervously at him, then pulled the car into an empty space on a curb and twisted the keys out. "Okay, but we leave as soon as anything goes wrong."

"Alright!" He whooped, eyes lighting up.

The two of walked down the sidewalk. I only half believed this was really happening. This is the last place I thought I'd ever find myself.